The Chess Set
by McWhite
Summary: Harry and Hermione want to give Ron a self-enchanted chess set for his fifteenth birthday. But it is more complicated than it first seems, and they need some help. Who do they ask? And what comes of that new acquaintance years later? A Two-Shot to answer the Embrace Your Majors challenge.
1. Chapter 1: A matter of the mind

_Hi everyone, this is a two-shot response to Lara1221's Embrace the Majors Challenge. The idea is that one writes two connected one-shots, one for a promt idea related to a subject in the sciences and one for a promt idea related to a subject in the humanities. I came across it by accident, and as I generally agree with the stance that all majors are important, I thought I'd take part. I admit that mine is closer to two-shot than it is to two one shots. The first is the sciences one. The prompt was " **Calculus:** the fancy way to do slope and area with lots of math and multiple dimensions - write about: something that is more complex than it seems to an outsider (a with benefits relationship, an Auror mystery, etc.)". I do not own Harry Potter._

* * *

 **A matter of the mind**

Hermione put her arms onto the table and burrowed her head in them in despair. She had never given up on anything before, but maybe now was the time. She felt Harry pat her back and looked up to him. He didn't seem any less exhausted than she felt, though of course in his case it could have to do with the Tri-Wizard tournament. The second task was only two days ago after all and despite any reassurances it had been plenty dangerous.

However, Hermione had another problem right now. Ron's birthday was coming up in three days and they didn't have a present for him. It has just slipped their mind, with everything else that was going on. Yesterday in the morning Hermione had come up with the idea of giving Ron a self-made chess set. Harry had readily agreed to do some research and enchanting work, both of them certain that Ron would appreciate it even if it didn't turn out as good as the ones available in shops. They had done research into the necessary enchantments and runes yesterday and where sure they could manage. They had even found a book titled 'In the Court of the King: A book on Chess Enchantments', specifically on the enchantments for the chess figurines and how to weave them into each other, so that they worked well together. Today Hermione had gotten a very beautifully carved Muggle chess set via mail from her parents. Of course Hedwig, intelligent owl that she was, had made sure Ron wasn't there when she delivered it.

However, that had been the extent of their success. They had spent the whole day in an empty classroom trying to produce the easiest of the enchantments, the one for the pawn, but nothing they tried seemed to work. Not even the simple enchantment that would get him to move on command, if the commanded move was legal. Hermione had searched through the section on pawn enchantments multiple times, but hadn't found anything they did wrong. By now Ron was certainly wondering where they were.

"Come on, we'll get him some sweets from Honeydukes. He will like that." Harry suggested.

Hermione shook her head. "No. I want us to get this to work." It was a matter of pride now.

"I want it to work, too, but we don't have that kind of time. Why not try to do this properly until next year? It is a good idea." Harry tried to reason.

Hermione shook her head again. "We cannot give up yet."

Harry looked at her for a while, probably deciding whether it was worth arguing about this, but then he sighed, nodded and smiled at her like he was indulging a stubborn child. "Alright. I suppose I can send Hedwig out to Hogsmeade and back if we don't have anything in two days."

Hermione nodded and opened the chess enchantment book. After another hour, which Harry spent by browsing through the other enchantment books, Hermione closed the book and ones more burrowed her face into the crook of her elbow.

"Maybe we can ask someone for help?" Harry suggested. "Who is good in charms and runes and theory? Other than you I mean."

Hermione looked up again, pondering her best friend's question. A smile formed on her lips. The answer was obvious and because Harry asked, he couldn't complain about it either.

* * *

"Granger, while I am honoured that you would request my help, I'm not quite sure what you want with Potter here?"

Harry cringed as he heard the even, haughty voice of Daphne Greengrass the moment he entered the room behind Hermione.

"He is here because he is helping me in this project." Hermione answered confidently which made the Slytherin girl snort.

"Potter? Really?" She looked at him critically, before her face softened somewhat. "Well I suppose there are people who are worse than him. At least he is reasonably powerful, even if highly inelegant."

"I'm standing right here, Greengrass." Harry said somewhat irately.

The girl looked at him with an amused smirk. "Of course you do, Potter. There would be little point in me trying to rile you up if you wouldn't be standing right there. The beauty of it is that as you want my help, you can't really come back at me either."

Harry gritted his teeth, but recognised that she was right. Hermione wanted this chess set and for that she had said they needed Greengrass' help. Harry wasn't going to keep Hermione from trying, so he couldn't really do anything that would make it harder to get the Slytherin's help. But he would spend a whole lot of time during this meeting, imagining what he would have done if he didn't care about Hermione so much, even though then he wouldn't be here in the first place.

"Great." Hermione smiled to both of them. "Now that we all got acquainted with one another, how about we start?"

Hermione started explaining to Greengrass what they wanted to do, what resources they had and where their problem was. If Harry wasn't mistaken, Greengrass was slightly impressed. At least her eyebrows rose a bit during Hermione's explanation. Harry also added one or two things that he had tried himself, and was satisfied as Greengrass' eyebrows rose a bit more. At the end of the explanation however, the Slytherin shook her head.

"I'm afraid I don't know anything more than you do. Your attempts seem feasible to me and the runes you showed me all seem alright." Harry prepared to glare at Hermione. All this for nothing. But the girl wasn't finished. "I might however know someone who can help you."

"Who?" Harry asked immediately.

Greengrass smiled. "My little sister."

Hermione appeared confused. "Isn't she a second year?"

The Slytherin nodded. "But she is the chess master in our family. What is more she has repaired her own sets ever since she was allowed to use magic."

Harry nodded. "Alright, can you get her?"

Greengrass smirked. "Not so fast. I want something in return."

"But…" Harry started, before Greengrass interrupted him.

"Surely you didn't think I would help you for nothing? If I did, and it came out, they would laugh me out of the Slytherin common room."

Harry sighed. "Ok, what do you want then?"

"Teach me to cast a proper stunner." The girl said commandingly.

"Pardon?" Harry asked.

"I want to be able to cast a proper stunner. We won't learn until the end of the year and when I tried to teach myself it didn't come out the way it should. It's usually orange instead of red, indicating that it has too little power, if I trust the book I used. I heard you learned them early for the tournament. I want you to teach me."

"Why?" Harry asked confusedly.

The girl shrugged. "I want to know how to cast it."

Harry looked to Hermione, who nodded slightly, before he turned back to Greengrass. "Alright. Show me what you usually do."

* * *

After the little Greengrass listened to Hermione's explanation, she shook her head sadly. "No, no, it is more complicated than that. Firstly, you need to start with enchanting the king. The other enchantments have to be woven so that they are interlaced with the king's one."

It was Harry's time to raise his eyebrows as the second year went into lecture mode in front of the three older students.

"The king is the centre of your chess set. He needs to be the centre of the enchantments." It was really like watching a smaller version of Hermione, with lighter hair and grey blue eyes.

"The book didn't say anything about that?" Hermione questioned.

"Of course it didn't. It's a book about chess set enchantments in order to repair your sets. They assume that the basic enchantments are already there. Otherwise the book would be much more complicated." The girl seemed to go into a rant. "You cannot expect to read a couple of books and suddenly be an expert in an ages old art."

"Ages old art?" Hermione asked confusedly.

"Of course. Chess has been in the magical world nearly as long as it has been in the Muggle world. It is in fact one of the few things where magical and Muggle world are strongly intertwined. Of course, when playing Muggles the magical chess masters do use usual pieces, but even here you cannot be a chess master without knowing many of the Muggle treatises on strategy."

"Really?" Hermione asked interestedly.

The girl rolled her eyes. "How can you not know this when you have Ron Weasley for one of your best friends? Seriously. Anyway, it isn't enough to simply know a few enchantments and how to link them properly. You have to infuse the set with strategic knowledge; otherwise if the figurines talk back to you, they won't make any sense at all. There is a whole theory surrounding that kind of thing. Some say it is better to infuse the board with knowledge, as in that way all figurines have the same knowledge base. The disadvantage is that then you need additional runes on the figurines, and it is not like there is a lot of space to begin with. On the other hand, if you infuse each figurine directly, their knowledge might slightly differ. It might create a biased board, especially if the difference is between a black and a white figure."

Hermione gulped. "I didn't know all that."

"Well, Weasley is very good, so probably he doesn't often need to repair his sets, other than putting the figurines back together. Maybe he doesn't know either." The girl granted. "But the fact is that creating a great chessboard is certainly worth an Outstanding NEWT in charms. Even a minor one is OWL charms- and runeswork and that doesn't take into account having to build the knowledge about chess strategy needed. You cannot do it on the back of a napkin."

Harry felt a grin sneak on his face as Hermione was intellectually taken apart by a second year. He decided that just maybe the little Greengrass wasn't that bad. Harry quickly schooled his face however, when Hermione turned towards him. "I guess we have to go with Honeydukes then, Harry." She said dejectedly.

That wiped away all his mirthfulness. He knew that Hermione really wanted to make this work, and his best friend was important to him. He looked at the little Greengrass. "Is there really no way we can make this work?"

"I never said that." The girl said with a grin. Hermione turned around hopefully. "I can help you. I have sufficient strategic knowledge and I can cast the charm that is used to infuse it. You will have to cast the other enchantments though."

Harry smiled at Hermione. "See, everything will work out." Hermione nodded.

"However, my help isn't free." The little Greengrass suddenly said with a grin.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Of course it isn't. What do you want then?"

"You will play chess against me two hours long, twice a week after dinner for the rest of the school year." She demanded.

Harry gaped at her. "What? Why? I'm certain you can find better players."

The girl shook her head. "It's not that easy. My sister is fed up with losing to me. Slytherin's in general don't like to show weakness, especially not in strategic thinking, so no one there wants to lose in chess against a second year girl. And as you know well yourself, the other houses don't trust us much." She looked at him for a moment, then she offered "We can go to an abandoned classroom and no one will see how you get your ass kicked by a second year."

"It's not about that!" Harry defended himself. "Don't you think twice a week for the rest of the year is a bit much?" he tried.

"Then maybe you want to go look for someone else to enchant your chess set for you. You already started with the runes, and they are too big to fit any others beside them. So instead of just enchanting the board I will have to carefully enchant each single piece, making sure they are balanced."

Harry put up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. But in the two weeks before the third task we cut it down to once a week, ok?" The girl nodded after a brief consideration.

"How do Tuesdays and Thursdays sound to you?"

His negotiation partner simply offered her hand to shake on the deal and Harry took it. Their birthday present was saved.

* * *

Hermione worked on the other runes for the rest of the day, while Harry started learning to cast the enchantments needed. Both Greengrasses stayed with them, Astoria to guide them through the process, Daphne because somehow she had been dragooned into helping by her little sister.

The youngest in their group repeatedly explained to Harry why the enchantments had to be woven the way they had to be, but Harry didn't quite understand most of it. It had something to do with how one wanted the chess pieces to act. One wanted the pieces belonging to one colour to be somewhat of a unit, which is why all enchantments on the other pieces were bound to the king.

The pieces of different colours should be opponents, but they shouldn't simply run at each other unless the players direct them too. Make the enchantments too strong and the pieces would constantly be at each other's throats, even if no game was played. To weak, and they wouldn't knock each other out when the players called for it.

That was how far Harry got. The rest of the things the little Greengrass explained as if she was teaching them that two plus two equals four was simply beyond him. When he looked at Hermione and even the older Greengrass, at least he got the feeling he wasn't the only one. It didn't seem to bother their supervisor though. She went on and on about how the different characteristics of the pieces on every wizarding chess board added an additional dimension to the chess game and then explained tactics and strategies that were meant to make wilful pieces submit to a player's wishes, or to make too peaceful pieces more violent.

Harry idly thought that what she said sounded extremely interesting, if only he was able to understand it. He had never thought that so much thought and spellwork went into something that could be found inside a wizard's Christmas cracker, was astonishing to him. Though then again maybe his Christmas cracker set wasn't very well enchanted and that's why the pieces were so contrary and stubborn.

"Are you listening to me, Potter?" Harry was shaken out of his thoughts by the voice of Astoria.

"Sorry, what is going on?" he asked sheepishly.

The girl rolled her eyes. "I said you can now start by enchanting the black king, the runes are finished for that one."

"What? No, I mean, me? Are you crazy?"

She looked at him entirely unimpressed. "Do you think I made you learn the spells for fun?" Then miraculously her expression softened a lot, she even gave him a little smile. "Don't worry, I'll guide you through it. It will be fine."

And guide him she did. Harry was impressed at how good she was actually at explaining the stuff he had to do. It was still complicated as hell, but by the end of the evening, when they agreed to meet again the next day, Harry had the feeling he had really learned something, not only about chess, but maybe about enchantments in general.

* * *

"Wow, this is awesome. Thanks so much!" Ron pulled first Hermione and then Harry into a hug. "And you really made the enchantments yourself?"

Both teens nodded.

"This is really great!" Their red-headed friend said again. Harry and Hermione smiled at each other.

* * *

"You are overlooking that I threaten your queen in two moves." Astoria said in a quiet voice. Harry looked at the board carefully again for twenty seconds again, before he found it. In two moves his queen would be threatened by Astoria's bishop, but he wouldn't be able to move it then, because the king stood right behind her. After a little thought he decided to simply move his king now.

He looked up to Astoria who smiled at him and nodded. It had gone like this for two weeks now. After she had beaten him hands down several times in their first two evening sessions, she had taken to instead give advice and explanation on the fly. Sometimes she would even halt the game for fifteen minutes or so to explain certain more complex strategies. Currently it was still a lot as if she was actually playing against herself, but Harry knew that with her help he was slowly getting better.

He didn't believe that Astoria was as good as Ron, but he didn't care that much. She was much better in explaining. If he was honest with himself, he would have to say that he was somewhat enjoying the distraction these chess sessions provided from his usual modus operandi this year: do schoolwork, prepare for tournament. They were a nice time-out, as neither Hermione nor Ron was with them and Astoria never pestered about the tournament. Idly he thought that if they kept this up he might one day be able to beat her without her help. Little did he know when he thought this, that that day would only come many years later.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading :)  
_


	2. Chapter 2: A matter of the heart

_Hi again :) This is the second bit of the ETM challenge response. This one is for the response to the humanities. I think all three of the following prompts fit, so choose whichever you think fits best.  
_

 _- **Gender Studies:** the study of males and females in society - write about: a romance_

 _- **Education:** learning how to make the next generation great - write about: something that happens in Hogwarts_

 _- **Composition and Rhetoric:** getting people to do what you want - write about: someone who knows how to get what they want_

 _I don't own Harry Potter._

* * *

 **A matter of the heart**

 _25_ _th_ _February, 1999_

Astoria Greengrass smiled to herself. Today was the day. This was the moment she had waited for. She looked down at the black king in her hand. Tomorrow it would be exactly four years ago that she had first seen it. Astoria got a far away look in her eyes as she allowed herself to briefly re-live the memory of how she had helped Harry and Hermione enchant the very chess set that she now hoped to win on. She placed the king on the board, completing her two rows of pieces and looked up to her opponent.

"May the better player win." She offered.

Ron Weasley nodded back to her. Ever since the war had ended, there were a lot more different activities in school. The Hogwarts Chess Championship was one of them. Astoria had made it to the finals, and she badly wanted to win. However, the reason she wanted to win was not the title, as gratifying as that may be. It was a private bet with her opponent.

* * *

 _A week earlier_

"Hey, Weasley!" Astoria called out, as she had finally managed to find Ron Weasley alone.

He turned around and looked at her guardedly. "Greengrass. What do you want?"

Astoria sighed, as she tried once more to reason with the tall boy. "Does it really have to be like this?"

"I don't know what you mean." He claimed with a shrug.

"You do know very well what I mean. Ever since Harry and I became friends you are trying to get between us. I understood a little when he was still dating your sister, but now?"

The boy looked at her with an expression somewhere between anger and suspicion. "I just don't understand what you want from Harry? He won the war, is famous and suddenly you two are best buddies. You are a Slytherin, they know how to make the most out of a situation. I haven't seen you help him in any way when he was on his last leg battling Voldemort."

That hurt Astoria. "Harry understands why I couldn't help him."

"Yeah, he told me all about that. But in the end you didn't help him because it was the easy way out. What happens when the next dark lord is after him? You vanish under your rock again until the danger is gone? Harry needs real friends."

"I am a real friend." Astoria shouted exasperatedly.

"You are a nice weather friend. Harry has enough people who pat his back when it is easy."

Astoria narrowed her eyes. "You just blame me for Harry and your sister breaking up. And you think if I was out of the picture they would come back together again. Go on, admit it!"

"Look, I'm not saying there was something between you. Harry is too honourable for that."

Astoria couldn't believe it. "And I am not?"

The boy simply ignored her. "But Ginny can easily get jealous. She told me it had nothing to do with that, but what else should I believe."

"Maybe that it just didn't work out?" Astoria suggested.

"What did he tell you about it?" Weasley asked once more in a suspicious voice.

"Nothing really. Only that it was his fault and that he didn't want to talk about it."

"And you were not a little bit happy when you heard?" Weasley asked again.

Astoria took a deep breath to start denying it, but when she thought about it, she knew it wouldn't get her anywhere.

"No, I was happy. I was sad for Harry that he was feeling badly about it, but I was happy for myself."

"See?" Weasley shouted triumphantly, waving a finger in her face.

"See nothing. I didn't do anything – ANYTHING – to break up Harry and your sister. First of all, you are right and Harry would never stand for that. Second of all, no matter what you might think I have seen how much he suffered during the war and I wanted him to be happy. And mostly I am not the type of girl who steals another girl's boyfriend."

"Yeah, as if." Weasley scoffed. "Anyway, what do you want from me?" He asked.

The question caught Astoria slightly off-guard. "Pardon?"

"You found me here. Certainly you didn't think you could convince me. What do you want from me?"

"I want to ask Harry out." Astoria stated clearly. If there was one thing she did know, it was that.

"Over my dead body." Weasley replied immediately.

Astoria looked at him pleadingly. "Does it really have to be this way?"

The boy simply nodded grimly and Astoria sighed. "Alright. Look, I know you don't like me. I'm certain you have your reasons, however stupid they may be. But I like Harry. Believe what you want, but I really like him. I want to try and see if I can have a relationship with him. And to me, this is important enough that I will happily fight you all the way." She made a small break as she gauged his reaction. His frown deepened and it seemed he was about to say something, so she continued before he could interrupt her. "But I don't want that for Harry. I would prefer it if I could just convince you that whatever bad opinion you have of me is wrong, but that doesn't seem possible. So let us make a bet. If I win the Hogwarts Chess Championship next week, I will ask out Harry and you won't stand in my way. If you win, I will not ask him out until at least after he leaves Hogwarts. I have to come back here next year, so more realistically I won't ask him out until I leave Hogwarts. That should give your sister all the time in the world to come back together with him if she wants."

Weasley looked at her more curious than frowning now. "And if I don't agree to your little bet?"

"Then I will leave you standing here, march straight up to Harry, kiss him on the lips and ask him out to Hogsmeade. And I will put all my Slytherin resourcefulness, which you seem to fear so much, into making sure that you won't come between me and him." Astoria said threateningly.

Weasley's eyes narrowed as he thought about her words. Astoria smiled as she could practically see the wheels turning in his head. Finally he held out his hand. "Alright, we do the bet. You'll never win, Greengrass."

"We'll see." Astoria said as she shook his hand. "We'll see."

* * *

Astoria had prepared for the full last month. She had studied Muggle strategies and games that hadn't made it into the magical world yet. She knew in ten games, Ron Weasley would probably win nine. Objectively, he was clearly the better player. But that didn't bother her. She only needed one win. This one. If she could surprise him with strategies he hadn't seen yet, she might get the upper hand.

She thought about the reason why she wanted to win. Harry. Back when they had first met, she would have never thought that she would end up falling for Harry Potter. Please, a boy who could barely keep up intellectually with a girl two years is junior? Astoria would have laughed whoever suggested it out of the room. But she had been desperate for chess partners, so in return for helping him and Hermione she had demanded bi-weekly chess games and he had taken her up on the deal. That was how she first got to know him.

He had been very different from what she had first expected. Of course, he was total pants at chess, but it didn't seem to bother him to lose to her. He always smiled when he greeted her, sat down and tried his best. He never complained. Astoria became a bit more confident, and started trying to teach him. To her surprise, he had seemed to enjoy it. A girl two years younger than him was lecturing him, and he didn't mind. Anyone else she knew would have seen it as a weakness and shut her up. But Harry simply nodded and tried work what she told him into his game. Sometimes he even asked questions. His questions, in fact, had been how she had first discovered that he was much more intelligent than she had originally thought.

It wasn't until the week before the first task when to her utter shame she had discovered that she had done exactly the same as those other girls her age that she had always only shaken her head at until now: she had developed a crush on Harry Potter. Though other than most, at least she had a crush on the actual boy, not on the obviously wrongly depicted boy-who-lived persona. But still.

Now, four years later, she knew it had been a young girl's crush and in fact much like Ginny Weasley probably Astoria would never have found the confidence to act upon it back then. But she never found out, because a week after she had admitted her crush to herself, Harry had come back with the lifeless body of Cedric Diggory and the warning that Voldemort had been back. She knew it to be true as soon as she first heard that he said it from her sister, who had been closer at the time. The boy she had gotten to know wouldn't make something like that up.

A few weeks later her family had come to the same agreement with Voldemort as they had in the first war. They would stay neutral and Voldemort would steer clear of them. Of course that meant there was no way either she or Daphne, who before that had started a tentative friendship with Harry and Hermione, could talk to Harry again. Daphne had written them a note to explain everything, and Astoria had written a small note as well, but Harry had never replied.

Astoria had hated that he didn't reply. Oftentimes she found herself wondering if he thought them evil bigots, like so many Slytherins were. She tried to think how she would react in his position, but she couldn't quite put herself in his shoes at the time. Harry never even looked at her or as far as she knew her sister, but Astoria continued to observe. She observed how he clashed with Umbridge. She even sent a second note when by accident overheard two people talking about how someone had betrayed Harry's defence club to Umbridge. But again he hadn't replied and best she knew he had simply ignored it, as they still got caught. She was angry for a while and she got over her crush, but still she admired how he held himself through it all.

In the next two years she tried to follow his example as much as she could, without endangering her family. She took care of the Slytherins in the years under her, protecting them as well as she could from death eater spawn or bullies, mostly both at the same time. She heard at the end of her third year that Harry had lost someone important to him, but she hadn't been able to find out more until a few months later. Who would have thought that Sirius Black had been Harry's godfather? Or for that matter, innocent?

It had been two hard years for her. Not as hard as Harry's probably, but still she had done plenty of fighting. When she heard that Harry had gotten together with Ginny Weasley, it didn't really matter to Astoria anymore. She had her own life, her own fights, her own people to protect. Sometimes she mourned the potential friendship she and her sister had lost, but nothing more than that.

That was until the night of the Battle of Hogwarts. She had been in the hospital wing until just a few days earlier, as she had been badly hurt when she protected a few first year Slytherins from being tortured by wanna-be death eaters. Something the Carrows, who taught there that year, had readily allowed to happen. She was very lucky that Madam Pomfrey had managed to put her together again without any lasting damage. Still, she had been proud with herself, as the first years had gotten away clean.

When Harry suddenly had appeared in Hogwarts, and Voldemort's voice sounded through the halls, Astoria had taken one look at her sister and both of them had known that the time for a decision had come. When you are in the middle of the battle field, there was no way to stay neutral anymore. No matter what Harry might think of them by now, they weren't death eaters. And so they did their best to help protect the castle, or in their case the younger students, especially from Slytherin.

It had gone really well, too. Nearly flawless. Until that one moment. Voldemort had already fallen. They had already won. Sure, the remaining death eaters still had to be taken care of, but certainly everything had seemed fine.

* * *

 **Flashback**

As she saw Voldemort being struck by Harry's spell, she smiled and looked to her sister. It was over. Her sister smiled back to her and nodded and Astoria looked around the room. Harry had gone to his knees, understandable really. In other parts of the hall the remaining death eaters were rounded up. Astoria looked back to Daphne and suddenly time froze.

There, behind her, Astoria saw Theodore Nott raise his wand. No one else seemed to notice, so Astoria started to run, but it was across the hall. As a spell left Notts wand, Astoria knew she would never make it in time. The spell would hit Daphne square in the back. Astoria sprinted, but it was hopeless.

The spell had already made half the distance. Now three quarters. Astoria stopped running abruptly, when another movement caught her eye. Harry. Harry was running straight towards Daphne.

Open mouthed, wide eyed and praying to every god she knew about, she hoped, pleaded that somehow her sister would survive. That Harry would make it. It looked like the spell would be first, just as Harry jumped.

He reached Daphne. He pushed her out of the way. Relief washed over Astoria. Her sister was… no. No. NO! NO! Astoria's heart stopped when she saw the spell impact into Harry's leg. It looked like he would make it out of there. Why?

Harry was flung over the floor like a ragdoll and impacted into a knocked over table. That was when people started to react. Theodore Nott was stunned immediately. Soon a crowd of people blocked Astoria's vision on Harry. Tears shot in her eyes. Why had he done it? Hadn't he ignored them for the last three years? Hadn't he thought they were evil, like the death eaters? Why? Why had he been hit? It had looked like he would make it. It just hit his leg.

Astoria looked towards her sister. Daphne was still lying on the floor where Harry had pushed her, though she had propped herself upon her elbows. She was staring to the point where both of them knew Harry was lying right now. For a brief moment, Astoria caught her sister's eyes. She didn't know what to do.

* * *

Later Astoria and Daphne had visited Harry in the hospital wing. It had been a relief for both of them that the curse wasn't deadly. Harry's right leg would probably need a year of training before it would be back to its old mobility, but no lasting damage was done beyond that. Both of them knew they would be eternally grateful to him. Still, they wanted to know why he had decided to jump in front of the spell for Daphne.

What they were told surprised them. Harry had never gotten their letters. He went as far as to swear it, not that it had been necessary. He also told them that he never thought them to be evil or anything like that. He explained that during the summer before his fifth year he had visited his Godfathers house. While there, he had overheard Headmaster Dumbledore talking about the Greengrass family going back to their neutral stance. After listening in some more Harry had understood what exactly that meant and that in order for Astoria's and Daphne's family to be safe they couldn't meet each other again. So he had decided to keep his distance. When both Astoria and her sister had tried to apologise, Harry had suddenly become very serious. _"Never – NEVER – again apologise to me for trying to keep your family safe."_ He had said. Astoria thought she would never forget the look of conviction and compassion in is face.

Over the next days, Astoria visited Harry often and they started building a real friendship. Well, she assumed that's what it had been for Harry, as he had already been with Ginny Weasley again at that time. For Astoria the situation was different. Between saving her sister, his understanding for their situation and his even trying to help them with it by staying away, her crush had come back quite powerfully. Astoria knew though that it wasn't the same as it had been three years prior. It was stronger than a simple crush.

During the summer holidays Astoria found out that it had been her father who had redirected hers and Daphne's owls, as he had noticed that both of them had been unhappy that they couldn't meet Harry again. She had been mad at him for a little while, but quickly forgave him. She could see where he was coming from, and it was in the past now.

She spent much of the first quarter of the next school year getting reacquainted with Harry and to a lesser part Hermione, who both had come back for their seventh year in Hogwarts. It was a lot of fun and Astoria found that she liked how both of them had changed during the war. She had tried to get Ron to like her, but Harry's red-headed friend seemed to have a very fixed opinion about her. Maybe he knew her true feelings for Harry, or maybe he really objected to her behaviour during the war. Astoria never found out for sure.

Nonetheless, often she would spend time with their group, consisting of Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron. As opposed to her brother, Ginny had been very nice towards Astoria, whenever she was around. And so she had mixed feelings when she noticed first in early October that Harry and Ginny where having problems. Sure, she would like a chance with Harry, but the group apart from Ron had been very welcoming and personally she had thought that he and Ginny fit well together. She swore to herself she wouldn't do anything to give them more trouble, a promise she kept. She even tried to help out when she saw a way. But all in all it simply seemed that the year they had spent apart had changed both in different ways. A month later they had broken up and Astoria had nothing to feel guilty about, other than maybe the slight feeling of joy when she heard the news.

Astoria made the decision to be there for Harry and to stay his friend until he was ready to date again. But then she would take her chances and ask him out. She had learned during the war that if you knew what you wanted, there was little sense in delaying it. Her only worry had been how Ron Weasley would react. She didn't want to cause Harry any unnecessary distress.

Astoria shook herself out of her thoughts and looked back at Ron Weasley. This was the last hurdle. Astoria was sure Harry would at least agree to go out with her a few times. She just needed Weasley off her back. She had hoped to get Weasley's approval. She had honestly done everything she could think of. She had even pleaded with him, for Harry's sake. But now she wanted the next best thing. For Weasley to stay out of her way.

Weasley took a deep breath and started the game. "Pawn to E4."

Astoria smiled to herself as she dropped her eyes onto the board. She knew she could win…

* * *

There was applause in the hall from those watching, but Astoria was searching for one particular face amongst the crowd. There he was. He was smiling. Astoria jumped up and held out her hand towards her opponent. Weasley looked at the board in disbelief, but then looked up and shook her hand while still sitting.

"It was just luck. I needed to win, so I prepared and learned a lot of things that I hoped you had never seen before. Nine out of ten games I know you would win." Astoria said quietly.

She might have been mistaken, but it felt like for a short moment there had a hint of approval shone through Weasley's eyes. After they let go of each other's hands Astoria once more looked for Harry, who was still standing in the front row. She jumped of the small stage and walked straight towards him. He had allowed her to wipe the floor with him quite a few times over the last month, to help her prepare, so you could say he was something like her trainer. Harry opened his arms as she came close and Astoria gladly walked right into his hug.

After a few moments, Harry released the hug a bit, so that he could look at her. Astoria wanted to ask him out, but it seemed he wanted to say something, so she gave him time to collect himself.

"Listen, I… I wanted to ask you for some time, but… but I didn't want it to seem like I was using you to get over… you know. Would you… I mean there is a Hogsmeade weekend. I thought we could… you know?"

Astoria looked at him for another moment disbelievingly. He had wanted to ask her out as well? At that thought a smile spread on her face. She heard a snort and a giggle from whoever was standing beside them, and she thought she heard Hermione say something about Harry's way with words, but the joy she felt was enough for her to simply ignore his abysmal delivery. Instead she stood up on her toes and gave Harry a small peck on the cheek, and with a bit of mirth in her smile decided to show him how to do it right. "Harry, do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me?"

"Yes." Harry replied, more confidently this time. They smiled at each other.

* * *

"So, to date daddy you had to first beat Uncle Ron in chess?"

It was the 31st of August 2020, and Harry and Astoria sat in the living room of their comfortable house. Harry had their youngest daughter, Lilly Daphne Potter, on his lap, while their middle daughter, Lisa Nymphadora Potter, lay on the couch with her head in Astoria's lap.

Their oldest child, Charlus Wayne Potter, after both of their grandfathers, was still outside, flying in the gardens. Tomorrow Lilly would go to Hogwarts for the first time, leaving Harry and her alone in the house.

Astoria smiled down at Lisa, who had asked the question. "Yes. See, chess isn't that boring now, is it? Without it, you might have never been born."

"Chess is never boring." Lilly chimed in. She had inherited Astoria's talent for the game and Lisa was her favourite victim, just like Harry was Astoria's.

"Though I would have asked your mother out one way or the other. And your Uncle Ron eventually got over it." Harry said.

"It's cool that you are all still friends. How long did it take until Aunty Ginny was ok with it?"

Astoria snorted. "You would be surprised; it took her less time than it did Uncle Ron."

Both Lisa and Lilly giggled. "He is stubborn, isn't he?" Lisa commented.

Astoria laughed at her daughter's bluntness. "One of his very few faults, indeed." She looked up to see Harry send her a warm smile.

"Do you think I can beat Uncle Ron in chess one day?" Lilly asked excitedly.

"If you practice hard, I'm sure you can." Harry answered.

Their little girl got a look of determination on her face, so Astoria quickly added "But do not neglect your school work, young lady."

Lilly pouted, but nodded anyway.

"Speaking of which," Harry finally said, "Dinner is soon. You should go and check whether you have everything packed, so we can eat in peace. Tell your brother as well."

* * *

It was the evening of the next day. All their children where save in Hogwarts and they had gotten a short note that Lilly had been sorted into Hufflepuff. Tomorrow they would meet with Ron and Hermione, Astoria's sister Daphne and her husband Justin Finch-Fletchley. Ginny Weasley and her husband Oliver Wood and Neville Longbottom and his wife Hannah Abbot, to celebrate that all children of their group were now in Hogwarts, with Lilly Potter and Fiona Longbottom being the youngest of the cohort. Tonight they had to themselves.

As Astoria looked at the chess board between them with wide eyes, she knew her youngest boarding the Hogwarts express wouldn't be the only first this day. She looked up to her husband of soon twenty years, as he made his final move.

"Check." She had always enjoyed the sound of his voice. She smiled at him.

"…Mate." She finished for him and her king went onto his knees in on the board, signalling his defeat.

Astoria looked into her husband's emerald eyes. "You did it." Her husband smiled back at her. All was well.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed yourself :)_


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